Since we're in a purchase/refinance heavy market, I though it would be interesting to take a wholly unscientific poll on credit scores. Here's what I'm looking for. If you had a CreditKarma or other "non-credit report sourced score" at X, how much variance was there between X from CreditKarma to what the Bank had as their credit score?

Why? Here's how my conversations have been going lately:

Customer: I'd like a new loan. My credit score is 800

Me: Great! By the way, who provided the score?

Customer: Oh, I got the score from CreditKarma (AMEX/Discover/Chase/BofA/etc - they all use the same tool BTW) and it said it was 800.

Me: Hmmm. I'll use this 800 score to price the loan quote, but remember, once we run a report the score may vary. Using an 800 score here's your rate of 2.0%

Customer: That sounds great. Let's get started. You can run my credit.

The score data that these companies provide is not applicable to mortgage credit score data. Think of it this way: When you want to buy a car, the dealer runs your credit. That report is filtered through a score model used for car loans. When you want a credit card, that report is filtered through a credit score model used for credit cards....and so on. Here's a very helpful article on the subject:

I think the actual problem is the use of multiple score calculations for different types of loans.

Your standard credit score will not be the same as the score type used for a mortgage application. Even if you get the full report and score, that’s just the standard scoring calculation. FICO II I believe is what used to be used and maybe currently for mortgages depending on the agency. They have their own names for all the different score types they provide.

It doesn’t help that credit karma and your banking app show you an even more simplified score which tricks people who have good credit card history, but not good credit for that 900k house.